BOSTON, MA, USA and TEL AVIV, Israel
June 2, 2026
Backed by a Gates Foundation grant for agricultural development, the initiative aims to accelerate the discovery of crop genes linked to yield and resilience, strengthening the foundation's goal of supporting smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, dealing with growing pressure to produce sustainably in a changing climate
Converge Bio, the Generative AI Lab for the Life Sciences, announces it has received a multi-year, $2.5 million grant from the Gates Foundation to extend its drug modeling platform to crop genomics. The grant supports the development of a multimodal, long-context foundation model that can identify causal genetic variants associated with key agricultural traits, such as yield and climate resilience. The initiative extends Converge's platform from human health into crop science, helping farmers navigate increasing climate volatility while supporting long-term global food security.
As climate volatility intensifies, global food systems are under growing pressure to adapt. Yet crop genomes remain one of the most complex and least understood systems in biology. Although scientists have identified plants with specific traits that help them withstand harsher climate conditions, isolating and applying those specific features remains a slow and difficult process. Traditional breeding methods take 12 to 15 years to produce a new crop variety, meaning that intervention often arrives too late to keep pace with today's rapidly changing climate.
Converge Bio's AI-powered "virtual cell" initiative is designed to speed this timeline by treating the crop genome as an interconnected system rather than a collection of individual parts. Much like a large language model processing an entire document, the system analyzes millions of base pairs simultaneously to identify genetic variants associated with climate resilience. Researchers can enter a section of DNA and related gene activity data, and the system will rank the genes or mutations most likely driving a specific outcome. It can also show which parts of the DNA led to those predictions, helping scientists test them through real-world experiments. Moving beyond isolated crop analysis, the collaboration aims to shorten breeding cycles by prioritizing the most promising targets and accelerating the development of more resilient crops.
In practice, the grant aims to help researchers and growers identify high-resilience generic patterns earlier, reducing the number of cycles needed to develop new crop varieties, thus minimizing vulnerability to environmental shocks. Spanning 37 months, the grant marks significant confidence in Converge Bio's platform and its potential to drive meaningful change in crop science.
"This collaboration reflects a shared belief that solving the challenges of global food security requires a fundamentally new approach to biology," says Dov Gertz, CEO and co-founder of Converge Bio. "For us, this is a unique opportunity to bring our core technology into the agricultural space and accelerate the development of crops that are better equipped to withstand environmental stress. We are grateful to the Gates Foundation for its trust and partnership and look forward to what's ahead."
About Converge Bio
Converge Bio develops AI platforms that help biotech and pharmaceutical companies accelerate drug discovery and development. Founded in 2024, Converge Bio's 40-person team has deep expertise in machine learning, computational biology, and drug development; about half hold advanced degrees in related fields. CEO Dov Gertz developed a machine-learning method for discovering novel CRISPR systems, leading to a U.S.-licensed patent and a scientific publication in collaboration with Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna. CSO Iddo Weiner holds a PhD in Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, and has led the development of two drug programs through positive Phase 2 clinical readouts. CTO Oded Kalev previously led cybersecurity AI teams and has advised on large-scale generative AI applications across a range of organizations. For additional information about Converge Bio, please visit: https://converge-bio.com
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